Empathy is the magic key to the kingdom of human behavior. The challenge is to allow creators to actually experience people’s emotions within the context that drives their decisions in order to actually build for the greatest success. The challenge presented by Facebook leadership was to create such a catalyst for their teams, so that they could truly participate in the authentic heart of lives being lived today and better match product development to real human need. We created ‘cultural spelunking’ – a series of trips that embed teams deep in the heart of the American experience: eating, working and creating alongside the people whose lives define those small town spaces and places having a big impact today. Facebook took away a rich new vocabulary around the wildly varied human experience, as well as whole new understanding of true social community and connection. This work continues to lead to new products, new design tracks and new thinking with more to come.
